U.N. Tentatively OKs Dispatching Unit to Yugoslavia

UNITED NATIONS —  In a session that dragged into the night, the U.N. Security Council late Saturday tentatively agreed on a resolution that would send an advance party of 10 United Nations observers to Yugoslavia.

The action came as the U.N. secretary general and Germany fought a war of words over German plans to recognize the independence of Croatia and Slovenia.

The resolution authorizes the observers, including military officers, to go to Yugoslavia as soon as possible and pave the way for a 10,000-strong peacekeeping operation if the fighting stops.

Approval of the resolution had been held up by the dispute over Germany’s plan to recognize the two breakaway republics before Christmas, a move opposed by the United States and Britain as well as U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar.

They fear that immediate diplomatic recognition would destroy any chance of peace between Croatia and Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia’s six republics, which has fought against the breakup of the state.

In an exchange of letters, Perez de Cuellar and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher squared off over the issue.

Genscher, responding to a letter that the U.N. chief wrote to the European Community last week, said that denying recognition would only encourage the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav federal army to continue its “policy of conquest.”

Perez de Cuellar wrote in reply that he was not denying the right of Croatia and Slovenia to be independent but was concerned that “early, selective recognitions” could widen the conflict.